lady_mab: (turn around numbskull)
M.A.B. ([personal profile] lady_mab) wrote2019-11-20 08:52 pm

Meliora - Emanate - 40

Liala Darcy

I'm led away by my friends, casting one final glance over my shoulder at Rhys and Kaito as I do. I came because Bri, Trisha, and Catalina wanted me to be here, but as soon as they have me in their grasp, I'm not too sure I want to leave my team. Partly because it's been so painfully awkward between Rhys and Kaito.

Partly because I don't know how to act like a normal Participant, or even what sort of action it would entail. What are we expected to do here?

Lio and Rhys spoke of the last event, how everyone was gathered together to listen to a projection of the receptionist woman talk about the progress of the game. But did they really have to drag us all the way out here just to talk about that? There has got to be some other reason why we're all the way out in the original heart of London if they just wanted to chat.

Nothing happens for a very long time. Every so often, I glance between my watch and back over my shoulder, but we've moved away from where the rest of my team was standing.

"This is getting very old very fast..."

"Do you guys always have this much fun on events?" Catalina asks, twirling her fingers through her hair. "Because I'm having such a blast."

"Are they aware that it's a school night?" Bri asks, though her tone is far from serious.

I am a little tired, and my cough hasn't quite died down, but I don't say anything about it. "It's already like... almost eleven. We've been standing around here doing nothing for awhile."

I'm distracted by a text from Lio, who is complaining about being bored and nothing fluctuating in our medical details -- so he doubts it's a live feed of whatever we're doing.

Catalina nudges me in the side and says, "Look, it's those kids from school. The tall Indian boy and the girl with pink hair."

My head jerks up and, squinting through the crowd, I can make out the forms of Zoné and Jun, accompanied by Glen and two other boys I don't recognize. The seem to be standing around and talking at the moment.

Bri hums and taps a finger to her lips. "Who are the others?"

"I think one them is in my English comp class, but the other two.... I don't think they go to our school." Trisha squints as well. "Should we go say hi?"

Before any of us can get the chance to respond, Jun turns and meets my gaze just as a crowd of people pass by. She vanishes from sight, a miraculous act for a girl with bright pink hair, and reappears moments later several paces from our group.

"Hello!" she chimes, bright smile in place. Her eyes remain on me, but the greeting is aimed at the entire group as a whole. "It's nice to see you, Lia. I see you pulled the short straw this time, hm?"

Bri drapes an arm around my shoulders, almost protectively, and cuts in. "We told her to come instead of her brother. No fair that he gets to have all the fun, right?"

Jun's smile doesn't diminish in the slightest. "I suppose not, no. But I feel like it could afford to be a bit more fun right about now."

I shrug. "I don't know. That event on December twenty-second was plenty fun, don't you think?"

Now her smile starts to slip. Her dark eyes jump to the side, and I realize that she's looking at my friends.

Kaito had mentioned to us that, through half explained series of events from Lysander, Jun and Zoné had also been caught up with one of the strange monsters that attacked Rhys and I. That Jun had been hurt, though she seemed okay now.

"What about the event?" Trisha arches a brow and looks between her teammates. "There wasn't anything special about that."

Jun blinks twice before her smile returns, though it's not as brilliant as before. "At least it had a point. And it ran like the usual missions." She holds her hand out toward me. "Do you mind if I steal her for a bit?"

I take a step forward. There's so much I want to ask her, to figure out about what happened on that night to her team. If it compares at all to what happened to Rhys and I.

Bri's grip tightens instinctively on my shoulder but I slip out from beneath her grasp. I take a few steps backwards, an apologetic half smile in place. "I'll text you when I'm trying to find you again later."

Trisha pouts and crosses her arms over her chest. "Fine. It's not like we invited you along to come hang out with us or anything."

The urge to simply go back to Rhys' side is still strong, but I ignore it and Jun slips her arm through mine when I join her. "I know. Sorry. Next time, perhaps?"

"Maybe not at another Meliora meeting. This was totally dull." Catalina returns my smile with one of her own, waving as we start to pull away.

I stop before we can get too far. "Oh. My birthday is on Saturday. If you... want to go out and do something?"

The three girls exchange glances, then their eyes go wide with excitement. They all start talking at once, and I can barely make out the fact that, in some form or another, they've agreed and will text me later to figure out details.

Jun leads me away, back towards the others. "Happy early birthday to you and Lio."

I had almost forgotten that she had even been standing there, and guilt wells up. I didn't think to invite her along after announcing it. "I--"

She seems to understand immediately and shakes her head. "Don't stress. But don't think that doesn't mean I won't bring extra treats for the two of you for lunch on Friday." She winks, and I don't even get the chance to respond before we've arrived alongside the four boys.

Glen's expression brightens the moment he spots Jun. "Welcome back!"

"Everyone looks so gloomy," Jun replies, glancing around at the others. "Or guilty. I can't decide which one."

Glen fidgets and rubs a hand over the back of his neck. His ears, which are already quite noticeable in the way they stick out from his head, are a bright red.

"We're a terribly talkative bunch," one of the strangers says. His eyes roll to the boy on his other side. "We're gonna head off. See some of our friends over there." He claps Glen on the shoulder with a smirk and the two of them peel away from the group.

Jun doesn't release my arm but waves at them as they turn around. "It was nice meeting you!" Her smile immediately drops the moment they are swallowed by the crowd. "Stuffy private school types."

Nervous laughter works its way out of my mouth, and I clamp a hand in place to try and stifle it. "Sorry. That was mean. I don't even know who they are."

Glen heaves a sigh. "My teammates."

Zoné shoves his hands into his pockets and turns to me, grinning. "Looks like you got to be the lucky one for this meeting!"

It's strange how many people have been saying that to me this evening. "It's not all that weird. I'm allowed to do things after all."

"Not saying that you can’t," he concedes with a polite nod of his head.

I fidget beneath their attention and struggle to find something to say. In the silence of the moment, a watch beeps to signal the hour.

And then the hall floods with the deafening sound of hundreds of cell phones going off at once.

I jump in surprise, tugging out my phone and glancing at it.

"What the hell..." Glen mutters, squinting at his screen. "What is this shit?"

Jun glances from her phone to Zoné's, then offers up a shrug. "It doesn't make any sense."

My eyes skim over the message, having to read it several times. Nothing makes sense. "What's a red herring?"

"What I want to know is what is a man in a macintosh," Zoné asks, shaking his phone as if it will give him answers. "What's a macintosh, and can a man fit in one?"

"Isn't it like... an Old World computer?" Glen guesses before giving up with a shrug.

My phone beeps again, a message from Lio appearing beneath my thumbs. What the literal shit? I guess he got the same message.

No one gets the chance to respond further when a group of people shout in surprise and a familiar voice rises clear above the noise. "Participants of Meliora, my apologies."

We all whirl around to stare at the other end of the hall. Jun and I are too short to see much, but there is someone standing up on a stage and the lights are brighter than they had been moments before.

The woman makes a motion to calm the crowd, but it has little effect. "We at ALICE had nothing to do with that message. We are doing all we can to track down the origin of the email and reprimand accordingly." There's a pause, a blip, and then she starts again. "We at ALICE had nothing to do with that message--"

"What is actually going on right now?" Glen asks, staring dumbly at the stage. "I didn't think events were like this at all."

I take a step forward, placing myself in between them and the stage. "What happened to you two on the twenty-second?"

One pair of bright green eyes and a pair of purple swivel to meet me, then glance towards each other.

"Yeah," Glen adds, moving to take a stand at my side. "You still haven't even told me what happened. And none of that bullshit you were riding your bike and slipped on the ice that you gave me before, Zoné."

Jun says something that I can't make out then points at the stage. "Not now."

"But--" Glen starts, only to be cut off as she reaches out for his hand.

I turn around as shouts and jeers rise to drown out the confused barrage of questions. A well-dressed, older man stands up on the stage and I realize with a shock that this is the mysterious Program Manager that the others had always spoken about. I've been so uninvolved with the game as a whole that I had never seen him until this point.

"Participants of Meliora," he says, voice not quite booming, but still managing to carry through the cavernous space. "Thank you for coming out on this evening to attend this meeting. Your continued dedication to this game is just what we would expect of the fortunate few allowed to partake in this quest for information."

The crowd has gone terribly silent, anxious, waiting to see what happens.

"I want to formally apologize for the disturbance that has taken place here this evening. It was never my intent to have such a message to threaten you so directly."

My phone vibrates, and I nearly drop it in surprise at the sudden hum in my hand. Another text from Lio lights up the screen. What is happening right now? What was that text?

My thumbs hover over the screen, uncertain of how to respond.

"I called all of you here to deliver an update first. As you have undoubtedly noticed, your numbers are considerably smaller since last we gathered. A hearty congratulations to everyone who has made it this far." The Program Manager offers us a small round of applause.

No one returns the gesture.

Another text comes through. Liala?! Is everything alright?

Fine, I reply, because I don't know exactly what is happening. They're just talking to us.

We still can't make out his expression or any details from here. Even so, when he surveys the crowd, I have the uncomfortable feeling that he can see directly at me. "I do not doubt that there are many of you out there with questions. But I have one for all of you: Do you know why we are doing this?"

"So much for it being for information," Zoné grumbles, arms crossed over his chest as he glares at the stage.

At the front of the hall, closer to the stage, someone shouts out a barely audible, "Because y'all are sadistic bastards?"

Uneasy laughter rushes through the room, though it quickly dies as the Program Manager's head swivels like a lizard to pick the speaker out of the crowd.

"We are doing it for your sake. I hope you realize that. It is not for personal gain. We are not getting money from this, nor are we gaining publicity."

Again, Jun mutters something that I can't understand. Her face sports a dark expression that looks very out of place on her features.

"It's not like you need it!" the same speaker calls out. "Eminence is already madly in love with you!"

On the stage, the Program Manager's head cocks to the side. "We did not ask this city for their blind adoration and acceptance. ALICE came in and saved this city from what it could have become."

He pushes on before anyone can get the chance to voice another question, starting to pace as he moves from one side of the stage to the other. "Before ALICE, there was disease running rampant through what used to be London. It threatened the lives of citizens such as you or I. But my predecessors kept this new London from collapsing in on herself -- kept her from following in the footsteps of many other cities these past few decades. And they turned Eminence into the shining beacon that it is now, drawing all of you to it in one form or another."

It's a familiar story after five years of living in this city. We even learned about ALICE's origin in California years ago, back when the SD era first started. The small company that started out as nothing more than a desperate attempt to keep the west coast from crumbling without a centralized government.

I've been to the hospital enough times over the years for various blood work and tests because of my health. I've had plenty of times to read the literature on ALICE, though it is odd to have a company flaunt itself in its own building when everyone is already a local.

Even five years down the line, I remember how startled they were to receive me. Even after the reference from my pediatrician in Bainbridge. We were told that ALICE's headquarter in Eminence was the best place to go for me. And, sure enough, my health has slowly but steadily improved.

Not terribly noticeable for people like my brothers, who have not had to deal with the chronic lung problems or aching bones. But I've noticed the difference.

And that is why we've remained. Because ALICE is the one one that has been able to help me. Or at least, that is what we have been told.

I'm so wrapped up in my thoughts that I don't even catch the final parting words from the Program Manager before he's simply gone from the stage.

At my side, the three are whispering urgently to one another about what they just heard. I stare down at my phone, at the light blinking to indicate a message, and pull up the team chat.

I know that we've been told that the reward is getting to leave... but were we ever told why we couldn't just leave of our own prerogative? I mean, what's to stop us from just continuing on west from here?

Rhys response comes shortly after, though it does little to answer my question. 'And you, too, will begin to see the darkness in our utopia.'

I tuck my phone back into my pocket, wanting to hurry up and find my brother and get out of here. I feel left out, cut away from Jun and Zoné and Glen -- not close enough to them to try and butt in on the conversation. But I don't think it would have been much different if I stayed with Trisha, Bri and Catalina. They have their own reasons for wanting to leave or participate that I know nothing about.

Zoné notices me standing there and must read something on my face because he steps over to my side and puts a hand on my shoulder His touch is warm, heavy but reassuring. "Do you want us to walk you back over to your team?"

"But--" Glen starts, jerking back a step to move himself from one conversation to the other. "The twenty-second."

Zoné waves a hand at him to dismiss it. "We'll talk about it later. Right now, I just really want to get back to the city proper and eat something."

I nod, numb, and together we weave our way back in the direction of where I remember leaving Rhys and Kaito. Jun's arm returns to loop through mine, and Glen and Zoné flank us on either side. There's something reassuring about their presence, that wraps me up as a part of it despite how left out I felt moments before.

With the girls, I always feel so swept away. That I'm caught up in their flurry of activity by sheer proximity.

Strange how much more comfortable this small group feels to be around. They seem to understand the seriousness of the situation far more than my three other friends do.

I look at Jun's arm twined with mine, and she squeezes my forearm by way of response. It will be okay, the touch seems to say. We'll figure this out together.

And we will, I think, returning the gesture. We 'chosen few' will figure out just what exactly is being kept from the rest of the city, even if it means having to chase after riddles for vague answers.



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